LAT: "no indication that Bush knowingly employed illegal immigrants"

[Rose Siding]

Longtime residents of Midland say that Bush returned to the city of his childhood as the oil boom of the 1970s had begun to ebb, salaries were dropping and the workforce in the oil fields was shifting from white to Latino. Mexican immigrants were increasingly filling hard-labor jobs as drill operators and roughnecks.
...
There is no indication that Bush knowingly employed illegal immigrants at his oil company. Several people who worked directly with him said that he was consumed with hiring geologists and geophysicists to help find oil, and that rig workers were generally hired by subcontractors.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush2apr02,0,1445656,print.story

That makes it sound like he did but just didn't know it. Lucky for Bush no one cares if he breaks the law so long as it's in "good faith".

The piece goes on to explain that the woman it features, who Bush helped start a company in Cuidad
because "it would mean jobs for poor people", had been married to his business partner.

After Levine divorced her husband and moved to El Paso, she kept in touch with the Bushes. And when a potential business partner offered to include her in a plan to produce knapsacks, using workers on both sides of the border, she asked Bush for help.

Levine's ex-husband, Larry Wollschlager, placed the first business call to Bush, who had recently moved to Washington to begin working on his father's presidential campaign. "He said, 'I can only introduce you to the appropriate parties. I can't pull strings,' " Wollschlager recalled.

Levine spoke further with Bush, and, within a week, secured her meeting at the Commerce Department.

Pure altruism :eyes:

The video includes images that would probably rile those who today are calling for the most restrictive immigration laws. At one point, Bush is shown waving a Mexican flag. The footage was shot, Sosa said, during a Mexican Independence Day parade in San Antonio in 1998, when Bush was running for reelection as governor.

The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an image of him fishing on his property near Crawford, Texas, as he essentially described millions of Americans who populate his home state as the true foreigners in someone else's native land.

Any guesses on what Tancredo's staff is doing tomorrow?

[Minnesota Libra]

1. Oh yes - we're supposed to believe his "good faith"?? Why do.............

....I suddenly have this urge to :puke: when the name Bush and :good faith: are in the same sentence???? :eyes:

[MADem]

2. Uh, hate ta tell ya, but undocumented workers rebuilt the PENTAGON!

http://are.berkeley.edu/APMP/pubs/i9news/pentagonarrests101699.html

33 Illegal Workers Arrested at Pentagon
Latino Advocates Criticize Sweep That Nets About One in Six of Those Checked
by Philip P. Pan
Federal agents have arrested 33 illegal immigrants at the Pentagon, about
one in six of the employees who were asked to produce work permits during a
surprise raid on construction crews hired for the building's $1.2 billion
renovation, officials said yesterday."

Authorities refused to identify companies that employed the immigrants
arrested in the Thursday raid. Agents are still investigating whether the
firms knew they had hired undocumented workers, officials said, adding that
they will continue to monitor the Pentagon's construction work force to
determine whether others are employed illegally.

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said as many as 500 construction workers are
employed at various sites inside and outside the building on any given day.
Investigators with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the
Defense Protective Service, the Pentagon's police force, examined the
documents of about 200 of them as they showed up for work, he said.

INS spokesman Josh Green said 29 of the 33 undocumented workers, who are
from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua,
have been detained at the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va. They face
deportation hearings and possible prosecution for possession and use of
fraudulent documents, he said.
....(more at link)

[Cleita]

6. And why aren't the contractors who hired them paying the up

to $10,000 a head fine for violating the law? Oh, I forgot there is a loophole in the law. When you present documentation with your INS I-9 form, the contractor is not liable if it's false documentation.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Where's the copy of this 5 min video, with Bush waving the Mexican flag?

The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an image of him fishing on his property near Crawford, Texas, as he essentially described millions of Americans who populate his home state as the true foreigners in someone else's native land.

"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the American West was northern Mexico," Bush says in the video. "The people who lived there weren't called Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens, until all that land became part of the United States.

"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners in their own land," Bush adds.

He says the "Latino spirit" was fueled by "strong conservative values" of family, a strong work ethic, faith in God, patriotism and personal responsibility. "These values are my values," Bush says. "I live by them, and I lead by them."


Why didn't anyone dig this up during the campaigns? Seems no one wanted to make Bush look bad?

[Cleita]

4. Yes, and why do Jeb and him speak Spanish?

Methinks Babs had a few nannies there who could have been undocumented. (They work for less.)

[MADem]

11. Bush does NOT speak Spanish, he speaks spanglish

Jeb learned decent Spanish after he fell for Columba, who didn't speak ingles at all when they met.

Jeb is fluent, he can speak clearly and concisely. He even has a decent accent.

Monkeyboy is a "taco y cerveza, por FAY-vor" speaker.

[Cleita]

12. Jeb had to have some basics there to communicate with Columba

to begin with. Yes, the Spanish American kids learn from their nannies isn't the most refined because most of them have a limited education. My first son-in-law used to speak Spanish to me because he was raised by Mexican nannies. It wasn't perfect but he could communicate. I think a lot of the Spanglish talk out of Bush's mouth is along the lines of his phony Texas accent meant to connect with a certain demography.

[adriennui]

14. the dumb brother became president

i don't like jeb's politics, but at least he wouldn't have been an embarrassment.

[MADem]

15. According to Kitty Kelley, et.al, Jeb WAS supposed to be the one

But then he LOST his election, so they had to go to "Plan Dumbo."

Who knows if that is accurate, but it does have a sense of believability about it.

[Cleita]

16. Kitty Kelley is pretty thorough with her research.

She does admit that documenting a lot of what she found out was difficult because of the family's penchant for secrecy and obfuscation.

[Maddy McCall]

5. There is NO WAY he could NOT know. When you pay someone $2/hr...

or $20 a day for hard labor, you know.

:grr:

[acmejack]

8. That's what they like about it so much!

They can pay them $2 an hour, but tell their boss they are paying them $5.15 an hour and pocket that extra $3.15 an hour! It's the perfect republiCon scam, money for nothing-someone else does all the work.

[gristy]

7. Don't ask, don't tell

"There is no indication that Bush knowingly employed illegal immigrants at his oil company."

[EVDebs]

9. Plausible deniability combined with a pliant Operation Mockingbird press

equals a license to steal.

[cassiepriam]

10. Just like he never drove drunk or did cocaine? nt

[Cocoa]

13. and he didn't know his ballplayers used steroids

and he didn't know Rove outed Plame.